Caleb's Inheritance

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Joshua 14:1) And these what the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance to them.

In the last chapter and post, Joshua had detailed the inheritance that was divided among Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh on the east side of the Jordan River.  What is to follow will be the land on the west side of the Jordan that was to be divided among the remaining tribes.  However, it seems there is a long parenthetical section in this chapter, followed by a description of the land in the next chapter.  Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and ten princes, a prince from each tribe as detailed back in Numbers 34:17-29, would be the ones to distribute the land of Canaan as an inheritance to each tribe.

(2) By lot their inheritance, as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes and the half tribe. (3) For Moses had given the inheritance of two tribes and a half tribe on the other side of the Jordan, but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them.

The inheritance of the nine and a half tribes that had not yet been given land was to be divided by casting lots as the Lord had commanded Moses in Numbers 26:55.  Once again it is stated that the Levites received no land inheritance because they were the priests, and God was their inheritance.

(4) For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim; therefore they gave no part to the Levites in the land, except cities to dwell in within their suburbs for their cattle and for their substance.

The children of Joseph were divided into two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, Joseph receiving the double portion of inheritance that was usually granted to the firstborn.  That would have been Reuben, but he forfeited his rights as the firstborn when he defiled his father's bed (Genesis 49:4).  There was no land inheritance given to the Levites, and that explained how there were nine and a half tribes remaining to receive a land inheritance.  As the priests, the Levites received no land inheritance of their own, but they were given cities in the other tribes' portions in which to live and have cattle and keep their substance (Numbers 35:2).

(5) As the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did, and they divided the land.

The Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they divided the land, but again, not until the next chapter.

(6) Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, "You know the thing that the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning me and you in Kadesh Barnea. (7) Forty years old I was when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as was in my heart."

The tribe of Judah came to Joshua, and Caleb from that tribe spoke to Joshua.  He reminded him of what the Lord had said to Moses concerning him in Kadesh Barnea.  That was the time that Moses sent Caleb when he was forty years of age as one of the twelve spies to spy out the land of Canaan.  He came back with a good report, which he now says was what was in his heart, and said they should go at once and possess their promised land (Numbers 13:30).

(8) "Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God."

Caleb gave a good report of the land and wholly followed God who had told the Israelites to go possess their land.  However, his fellow spies came back with a bad report and frightened the people.  They claimed the people were too strong, many of them giants, and the cities were too fortified and strong (Numbers 13:28).

(9) "And Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance, and your children's forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.'"

Moses had told the people at that time that because the ten spies (excepting Caleb and Joshua) had come back with bad reports and all the people believed them, they and all the people would not be able to enter the promised land, but would have to wander in the wilderness forty years until they died off.  However, he said that Joshua and Caleb would live to enter the promised land.  He said specifically that Caleb would be given the land that he had trod upon because he had wholly followed the Lord (Deuteronomy 1:36).

(10) "And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive as He said these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke His word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, lo, I am this day eighty-five years old."

Caleb said that the Lord had kept him alive as He had promised (Numbers 14:24, Deuteronomy 1:36).  The Lord had told Moses that all that present generation would die out as they wandered in the wilderness, except for Joshua and Caleb.  Now Caleb was eighty-five years old and still alive as the Lord had promised.

(11) "As yet I am as strong this day as in the day that Moses sent me, as my strength was then, even so my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in."

Caleb went on to say that he was as strong now as he was in the day that Moses had sent him as a spy.  He was just as strong as he had been back then, for war, or for whatever he had need to do.

(12) "Now therefore give me this mountain of where the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakims were there, and the cities were great and fenced; if so, be the Lord with me, then I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said."

Caleb requested that he be given that mountainous region of Judea.  It seemed very important to Caleb that he have that region because of what the Lord had spoken in that day.  Even though the reports of the other spies had been that there were giants in the region and that the cities were great and walled, he still had great faith in the Lord to drive them out as He had said.

(13) And Joshua blessed him and gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance.

Even though the Lord had said the land should be divided by lot (v. 2), Joshua was well satisfied that it was the will of God that Caleb be given the land of Hebron for his inheritance, and he blessed Caleb and gave him that land.

(14) Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.

The land of Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb and the tribe of Judah to the day of Joshua's writing because he had wholly followed his Lord God and still had full faith in Him to that day.  I found this map at iBiblemaps.com that shows the division of the tribes' lands, including Caleb's (Judah):

(15) And the name of Hebron before was Kirjath Arba, a great man among the Anakims. And the land had rest from war.

Previously, the name of the main city of the land was Kirjath Arba, which meant City of Arba, who was a great man among the Anakim.  Caleb may have renamed it Hebron for his grandson as he had the same name (1 Chronicles 2:42).  The promised land of Canaan had rest from war.

In this chapter, the division of the inheritance west of the Jordan River had begun.  Caleb first made his request and was granted it.  Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, wrote a beautiful epilogue to this chapter that deserves serious contemplation:

The Jewish economy furnishes, not only a history of God’s revelations to man, but also a history of his providence, and an ample, most luminous, and glorious comment on that providence. Is it possible that any man can seriously and considerately sit down to the reading even of this book, without rising up a wiser and a better man? This is the true history which everywhere exhibits God as the first mover and prime agent, and men only as subordinate actors. What a miracle of God’s power, wisdom, grace, justice, and providence are the people of Israel in every period of their history, and in every land of their dispersions! If their fall occasioned the salvation of the Gentile world, what shall their restoration produce! Their future inheritance is not left to what men would call the fortuitous decision of a lot; like Caleb’s possession it is confirmed by the oath of the Lord; and when the end shall be, this people shall stand in their lot at the end of the days, and shall again be great to the ends of the earth.